Leftenant Commander's Log - Stardate 200510.26
Well..the semester's more than half over and well..things are getting busier. A few times already in the past few weeks, well more than a few times, I've had to spend more than 12 hours at the school, staying late at the lab to do some homework or even coming in during the weekend to do some lab work. This week has been fairly lax though so I've been able to catch up on some sleep in the afternoons after an early day. Tomorrow I'll most likely be spending the entire day at work.
Outside of school things are, well, in a general sense, getting better. Though that's not really saying much. A lot has changed though it may not seem like it. We've had our new kitchen for a few weeks now and still I'm forgetting where things are. As for my personal life itself, things are going okay I guess. I'm not sure if they're the way I want them yet but I'm sure I'll find out when the time comes.
Current events...Let's see. Bird/Avian flu is still in the news about being a pandemic, Sox and Astros are in the World Series, the NHL Lockout has finally ended (will blog more about this later), CBC is back to work, the teachers in BC have been on strike for a while now but are close to ending it, and Quebec may have yet another referendum.
As you know, Hurricane Katrina devastated several cities north of the Gulf Coast, namely New Orleans, which basically sits in a valley below sea level. The levies broke and, well, you can read about the rest. When this first happened the media coverage was global. Now the media has focused on yet another disaster. There was another earthquake in the Middle East with the death toll exceeding that of the Tsunami that happened a while ago. So within one year the world has suffered at least 3 Major natural disasters.
About the NHL Lockout ending. It was nice to see the players back on the rink and in the bench. We've even booked tickets to see the Sens play the Leafs in Jan. The media and hockey fans all around are fairly relieved, though I suspect some fans may have been pissed off at the fact that the players are still earning more money than most of them would dream of. A recent statistic I heard states that the players are earning 10x more than they were 10 years ago. When the lockout ended, the players agreed to a salary cap but at a higher limit than the commissioner(s?) was/were willing to originally admit t0. Hence, the strike. In addition to that, a few more rules have been added to the game to encourage more skill in the game and less "grunts". The NHL has also introduced a rule that prevents the game from becoming a tie. If, at the end of the 3rd period, the score is tied, the game heads off into 5 minutes of overtime. If there is still no score after that, shootouts are started. I'm not sure how I feel about this but I think it's a positive approach to eliminating ties.
I recently got a little beef with Apple. Around the beginning of September, I bought an IPod mini off of Ebay that was still in its box and sealed. When I connected it it had to be formatted for first time use so i assume it is new. So far I haven't had any major problems with it. That is...with the unit itself. In the package of the IPod was an ad with huge lettering. We're talking 10cm high letters that said "FREE MUSIC FOR YOUR IPOD". Ok maybe that's exaggerating but that's all that was on the side of the ad. The other side explained the details of how the iStore offered one free song per week as the "single of the week". So I open up the browser and browse the store, I find the single of the week that's free, after a bit of searching, and go to download it. I need an account...so i sign up but need a credit card to get an account. and need an account to get a free song. I understand the reason for it though. I guess I'll find other ways to get music. The last two albums I added to my iPod were the Ambassador-Thesis, and Diverse City, by TobyMac.
Out.
Outside of school things are, well, in a general sense, getting better. Though that's not really saying much. A lot has changed though it may not seem like it. We've had our new kitchen for a few weeks now and still I'm forgetting where things are. As for my personal life itself, things are going okay I guess. I'm not sure if they're the way I want them yet but I'm sure I'll find out when the time comes.
Current events...Let's see. Bird/Avian flu is still in the news about being a pandemic, Sox and Astros are in the World Series, the NHL Lockout has finally ended (will blog more about this later), CBC is back to work, the teachers in BC have been on strike for a while now but are close to ending it, and Quebec may have yet another referendum.
As you know, Hurricane Katrina devastated several cities north of the Gulf Coast, namely New Orleans, which basically sits in a valley below sea level. The levies broke and, well, you can read about the rest. When this first happened the media coverage was global. Now the media has focused on yet another disaster. There was another earthquake in the Middle East with the death toll exceeding that of the Tsunami that happened a while ago. So within one year the world has suffered at least 3 Major natural disasters.
About the NHL Lockout ending. It was nice to see the players back on the rink and in the bench. We've even booked tickets to see the Sens play the Leafs in Jan. The media and hockey fans all around are fairly relieved, though I suspect some fans may have been pissed off at the fact that the players are still earning more money than most of them would dream of. A recent statistic I heard states that the players are earning 10x more than they were 10 years ago. When the lockout ended, the players agreed to a salary cap but at a higher limit than the commissioner(s?) was/were willing to originally admit t0. Hence, the strike. In addition to that, a few more rules have been added to the game to encourage more skill in the game and less "grunts". The NHL has also introduced a rule that prevents the game from becoming a tie. If, at the end of the 3rd period, the score is tied, the game heads off into 5 minutes of overtime. If there is still no score after that, shootouts are started. I'm not sure how I feel about this but I think it's a positive approach to eliminating ties.
I recently got a little beef with Apple. Around the beginning of September, I bought an IPod mini off of Ebay that was still in its box and sealed. When I connected it it had to be formatted for first time use so i assume it is new. So far I haven't had any major problems with it. That is...with the unit itself. In the package of the IPod was an ad with huge lettering. We're talking 10cm high letters that said "FREE MUSIC FOR YOUR IPOD". Ok maybe that's exaggerating but that's all that was on the side of the ad. The other side explained the details of how the iStore offered one free song per week as the "single of the week". So I open up the browser and browse the store, I find the single of the week that's free, after a bit of searching, and go to download it. I need an account...so i sign up but need a credit card to get an account. and need an account to get a free song. I understand the reason for it though. I guess I'll find other ways to get music. The last two albums I added to my iPod were the Ambassador-Thesis, and Diverse City, by TobyMac.
Out.
